Antony Di Nardo

Alien, Correspondent Antony Di Nardo

Poetry. This arresting first collection is, in part, a delicately balanced look at Beirut from the perspective of a Westerner who lives and works in that remarkable city. Whether writing about the Middle East or about domestic life, Di Nardo refuses to romanticize; he doesn't moralize about the causes of perennial conflicts. He is that rare thing: a clear-eyed witness. "Time and space are lenses Di Nardo overlays to bring Beirut into historic and personal focus.... Evidence of violence abounds here, as does love, and Di Nardo epitomizes, like Cavafy, the empathy required to be its perfect correspondent"--John Barton.